The boys are back - It's been 16 seasons since the Hounds won the Memorial Cup: Now it's time to reunite

It's emblazoned on the side of the Soo Greyhounds team bus and on the minds of thousands of the city's hockey fans.

After 16 years, it still stands as an iconic image in Sault Ste. Marie sports history.

Rick Kowalsky and Ralph Intranuovo, holding up the Memorial Cup, emblematic of North American junior hockey supremacy.

Kowalsky was captain of the team that scaled junior hockey's mountain in 1993, after two failed attempts to take the trophy. And his memories of the events at Sault Memorial Gardens that spring evening are as vivid as his own brightly-coloured image on the side of the Hounds' motor coach.

"Getting to three Memorial Cups, and to finally win one there, at home of all places, was really something," said Kowalsky, a 37-year-old native of Simcoe, Ont. "I know there's a new building now, but we all loved that old one. We didn't have a lot of losses there.

"It's all still so vivid."

Kowalsky will relive those memories again this coming weekend, when he and other members of the Memorial Cup-winning team converge on the city for a reunion of the 1993 team.

"When I crossed paths with most of those guys again, it was shortly after junior hockey," said Kowalsky, who is now head coach of the ECHL's Trenton Devils. "So I haven't seen most of them in well over 10 years."

All but a handful of the players are expected to return for the event, which includes a reception Friday night, a charity game against local police Saturday and a brunch and golf on Sunday.

Kowalsky and his wife Deb, a Sault native, will bring along their children, six-year-old Dylan, five-year-old Sydney and two-year-old Ryan.

"It's great to see guys excited to do this" he said. "We're all quite a bit older, and we have jobs and wives and mortgages."

Kowalsky was only 17 at the start of the 1989-90 Ontario Hockey League season, his first with the Hounds. And that season was a difficult one.

The Soo posted a dismal 18-42-6 record, better than only two other teams in the 15-team league.

If that wasn't enough, there had been talk of moving the team, which may have happened if not for a Save the Greyhounds campaign supported by fans and local businesses.

"I saw the team come full circle," said Kowalsky, who played right wing in Sault Ste. Marie for four seasons.

In 1990-91, the Hounds improved to 42-21-3, captured a division title and won an OHL championship to qualify for the Memorial Cup.

In a classic OHL championship series, the Hounds defeated Eric Lindros and the Oshawa Generals for the J. Ross Robinson Cup.

Lindros had shunned the Hounds when they drafted him first overall in 1989. Head coach Ted Nolan and assistant Danny Flynn led a roster bolstered by players whom general manager Sherry Bassin acquired in the Lindros trade to a six-game victory.

"That was a huge step for the organization," Kowalsky said. "We had Ted Nolan, Danny Flynn and Sherry Bassin on board. I was only 18 at the time, but I knew the bar had been set.

"After that, the goal heading into training camp wasn't getting to the playoffs or even winning the championship. It was winning the Memorial Cup."

Even after dropping the 1992 Memorial Cup final 5-4 to Kamloops on a goal with 14.6 seconds left in regulation, the Hounds kept their eyes on the big prize.

"To look back now and think about how hard it is to win that trophy, and that we went to three in a row, it's amazing what those teams did," Kowalsky said.

Midway through the 1993 campaign, the return of No. 1 goalie Kevin Hodson from a stint in the minor professional ranks, along with a key trade for forward Chad Penney and defenceman Wade Gibson, helped send the Hounds on a thrilling second-half run to capture the division title.

In doing so, they qualified for the Super Series, then the means of determining a Memorial Cup host. They beat Peterborough in four straight games to win the series.

Peterborough would defeat the Soo in the OHL final. But the Hounds had the last laugh, beating the Petes 4-2 in the championship game and finally raising their coveted Cup.

Kowalsky scored the opening goal in the final game.

"The stars aligned for us that season," Kowalsky said. "It was such a great experience.

"I'm really looking forward to getting together with the guys and sharing stories."